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B/W Starter choice!

I dunno, all seem to really suck to me. :/ Smugleaf's third evo didn't turn out to be as epic as I thought (Like srsly give me grass/poison or grass/dragon or grass/flying or something), Barbequeboar just looks like a repetition of Infernape and Blaziken, and Emotter as the 'Dignity' pokemon doesn't seem any different from Empoleon at all. Probably dignified now because no one liked it when it was young.

I can't choose, and it's not because any of the choices are tempting at all.

I kinda actually like the Grass starter, but I do agree that he should have been a dual type (I'm digging a Grass/Dragon). The Water starter makes me WTF at his last evolution, and I don't like the Fire starter period.

If you're looking for references to China, Arcanine's your best bet. Although Infernape has a really close run for being so similar to Sun Wukong. Nintendo does seem to have this thing for fire pokemon and China.

Ken Sugimori, primary illustrator: I really struggled the most with the Water-type [starter] this time.Yusuke Ohmura, illustrator: There was talk of, "Wouldn't a sea otter be good for the Water starter?" But it was a really close decision in terms of what this sea otter would become once it evolves. In the end, we decided to have it evolve into something with a completely different appearance.Sugimori: Of course, we want to make the starters into Pokémon that remain with the player throughout the game, so we hope to make them evolve into creatures that offer a surprise to the player. We always make an effort to throw in some twists and create third-stage evolutions that have an impact.Ohmura: There was also talk this time about dividing the three starters into Japanese, Western, and Chinese styles of design. Tsutaaja was based on Western design, and Pokabu was rooted in a Chinese style, so I was told, "Let's make Mijumaru into a more Japanese-style design." Someone even asked, "Can't you make Mijumaru into a samurai?" [laughs]Everyone: [laughs]Sugimori: I worried about it for a while, and I eventually went to go see the sea otters at the aquarium. I happened to catch the sea lion show while I was there, and I became aware of the sea lion's power. "Well, let's try blending a sea otter and a sea lion," I thought. I came up with the idea of making the shell on Mijumaru's stomach into a sword (katana) and using it to fight, and that's how I completed Mijumaru and its evolution."

The West is a snake, the Chinese is a pig, and the Japanese is a legendary narwhal. Nice subtlety there, Nintendo.